


i’ll search the universe

by jimin_jimout17



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, But It’s Very Minor Don't Worry, Byun Baekhyun & Park Chanyeol are Best Friends, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Mother Hen Suho, Oh Sehun is a Little Shit, Park Chanyeol Being an Idiot, Sick Chanyeol, Sleeping Together, Sleepy Baekhyun, Sleepy Chanyeol, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 20:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13465728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jimin_jimout17/pseuds/jimin_jimout17
Summary: Being an idol is an exhausting job.It can sometimes be a lonely one, too.Luckily, Baekhyun and Chanyeol always have each other nearby.basically:five random times chanbaek sleep together and one time they don’t even have to ask





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Baekhyun can’t sleep the night before EXO-K’s debut performance.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baekhyun is stressed about debutsnd learns how clingy his fellow member is.

1.

As soon as the clock hits 1:30, Baekhyun starts to panic.

It’s not like he’s never stayed awake past 1:30 in the morning — in fact, 1:30 was usually considered a pretty normal bedtime for him — but sleep had never been so _important_. Although he’d only been a trainee for a few months, surviving off of minimum sleep had become a routine. He couldn’t count the number of times he’s stayed up practicing all night before waking up just 2 hours later to go to work.

But then he debuted.

He had become an idol. Like the ones you see on music shows and buy albums for and take pictures of and obsess over. He had fans, people who actually dedicated themselves to him and his band members. People who listened to their songs and would vote for them for awards and comment things like “stay healthy!” and “eat well~” on their social media accounts. So he had to be better. He had to start sleeping better and eating better and dancing better and singing better, so that when their debut performance came, he could be his best for the fans.

Like he said, sleep had never been so important.

The manager had sent all of them (all of EXO-K, that is) to bed at midnight, announcing that they’d have to get up at 7 and leave by 7:30 to start preparing for their performance. That was 7 long, peaceful hours of sleep before they had to wake up and start their day.

7 hours.

There’s something uncomfortable and lonely about being the last person awake. The panic starts to crawl down Baehyun’s throat as he thinks about the fact that everyone is sleeping, resting, preparing for the performance tomorrow. Everyone will be wide awake and ready. Except him.

Will he fall asleep on stage? Forget the dance? Forget the lyrics? He could handle forgetting the dance (everyone’s eyes will go to Jongin anyways, he’s the best dancer out of all of them), but if he forgot the lyrics.... he can’t imagine. The company would furious, no doubt, and so would the fans. If he messed up the debut performance, there’s no way EXO would recover from it. Their careers are basically riding on this performance and Baekhyun would be the one to mess it all up, all because he couldn’t fall asleep early enough the night before—

The room is pitch black, because neither Baekhyun nor Chanyeol like falling asleep unless it’s in the absolute darkness. Baekhyun likes the dark, but he kind of regrets plugging his lamp into the opposite wall. When he was a kid, he always got to sleep quickly if he had a light on. There’s only a small chance Chanyeol would wake up if he turned the lamp on — it’s cheap, with a dim, orange light — but he’d have to stagger across piles of dirty clothes and scattered objects to get to it. And besides, proof that he’d kept it on all night would definitely show up on the electricity bill. So there’s nothing to do, really, but lie in bed and swallow his growing anxiety and somehow try to force himself to go sleep like he’s been doing for the past hour.

Minutes pass and Baekhyun is still more awake than he’d like to be.

He’s suddenly too aware of everything around him; he can hear snores coming from somewhere in the dorm and the dulled sounds of the city of Seoul, which is lively even in the middle of the night. There’s an air conditioner turned on, though Baekhyun can’t pinpoint where.

Out of nowhere, he hears a hollow bump against the wall to his left. For a second he thinks (hopes) that someone is awake in the next room over, struggling to sleep like him, but a minute passes and he doesn’t hear anything else.

_Sehun probably just kicked the wall in his sleep._

The sound Baekhyun is most aware of, though, is the ruffling coming from Chanyeol’s bed. For some reason the boy next to him keeps twisting and turning, getting wrapped up in his blankets and unconsciously untangling himself. At one point his hand shoots out and bumps the bedside table. He hits it hard enough to bruise, but all he does is softly grunt and continue sleeping. Baekhyun bites his tongue to stop himself from laughing. He can’t tell if he wants to laugh because of how oblivious Chanyeol is or if the stress and lack of sleep is starting to catch up to him.

He checks the clock again. 1:34. He has 5 hours and 26 minutes until he has to get up. Already that’s an hour and 34 minutes of sleep less than everyone else. Baekhyun breathes in, then turns his head so his cheek is squished against the pillow and his eyes are staring at the wall. He pulls the blanket to his nose. It smells like the shampoo EXO-K all share and hairspray from all the times Baekhyun forgot to wash the product out of his hair before climbing into bed. It’s comforting and familiar, and maybe it’s what will finally lull him to sleep.

Nope.

In the darkness, time is a blurry concept and Baekhyun’s exhausted brain can’t keep track of it. When he checks the clock again after what he thinks must’ve been 20 minutes, 1:41 glows through the room.

He almost screams in frustration right there, regardless of who he’d wake up. Instead, he ducks his head underneath the covers and wills himself not to cry. He just has to face it. He’ll never fall asleep, and when it’s time to perform, he’ll pass out on stage in front of everyone and have to be carried away and Sooman will yell at him for disgracing his company and he’ll be sent back to Bucheon and forced to watch as his former band members continue as EXO without him. He wonders who will take his place. One of the trainees he used to practice with? Or maybe SM will spot someone at an audition just as they spotted him, and invite them to take Baekhyun’s place.

Baekhyun knows he’s being unreasonable and emotional, but he can’t help it. He just wants to _sleep_.

He eventually emerges from his suffocating cave of blankets to stare at the ceiling. He waits for his eyelids to start drooping to drag him into the unavoidable abyss of sleep, but they don’t. As he’s looking at the ceiling in self-pity, he hears Chanyeol move again beside him.

The rapper is draped across his bed like a starfish. Baekhyun can’t see most of him because he’s tangled in his blanket, but his eyes have adjusted to the darkness well enough that he can see the vague outline of one of Chanyeol’s legs hanging off of the mattress. He’s so tall that his foot nearly touches the edge of Baekhyun’s blanket (although there isn’t a lot of space in the room to begin with). He goes back to lying still, so Baekhyun goes back to staring at the ceiling.

A few seconds later, he hears a deep, muffled mumble, as if Chanyeol is trying to talk into his pillow. The room goes quiet immediately after, but Baekhyun is listening intently now, desperately, in case Chanyeol starts to speak again. It’s a few moments before he does.

“-yung?”

Baekhyun barely catches it, both because Chanyeol’s voice is much deeper than usual and hard to hear. He’s never really called Baekhyun “hyung” before — he’s only a few months younger anyways, and he always teases that Baekhyun is too small and cute to call hyung. He must be mostly asleep if he’s using honorifics.

“-aekhyun?”

This time, Chanyeol’s voice is clearer and more alert. Baekhyun watches out of the corner of his eye as his roommate slowly sits up and straightens out. It’s too dark to make out any details, but Baekhyun can tell Chanyeol is still half asleep from the way his head slumps forward and his hand runs clumsily through his hair. He drops his hand and slumps forward even more, and a sharp twinge of anxiety hits Baekhyun when he wonders if he’s fallen back asleep.

Suddenly, Chanyeol picks his head up and reaches blindly towards the bedside table. He finds the clock and turns it on. It lights up, flashing 1:48 for a few seconds. Even though the light only illuminates the room for a second at a time, it’s long enough for Chanyeol to see Baekhyun through squinted eyes and notice that he’s awake. When the clock turns off again, Baekhyun can feel more than see Chanyeol smile.

“So you _are_ awake.” His voice is rough and his words slightly slurred from sleep.

“Yeah.” Baekhyun whispers, even though they’re the only two in the room and most of the other members are deep sleepers anyways. He sits up too, so he doesn’t have to stretch his neck to look at the other boy. “Did you just wake up?”

Chanyeol nods. “I think so.” He looks down, like he’s just realizing how tangled his blankets are. “You?”

It takes Baekhyun way too long to answer. He thinks about lying, but honestly, what’s the point? He grabs the edge of his blanket in his fingertips and plays with it. “I’ve been awake since midnight.”

“Really?”

Baekhyun laughs. “Yeah.”

Chanyeol laughs too. It’s soft and deep, but still delivers the same effect Chanyeol’s laughs always do. “Aren’t you tired?”

With perfect timing, Baekhyun yawns. He didn’t really notice how tired he was until Chanyeol mentioned it. “Of course I am. But I can’t sleep for some reason.”

“Nerves?”

“Probably.”

“Don’t be nervous.”

“If only I had thought of that.”

Chanyeol laughs again, and it brightens up the room even though the lights stay off. “Seriously, don’t be nervous. You’ll be great.”

“I’d be great if I could sleep.”

The room goes silent. Baekhyun looks down at his blanket, not knowing what to say. He likes hanging out with Chanyeol in general — he’s just so outgoing and energetic — but it’s especially nice that they share a room and sometimes they can just talk, the two of them, alone and uninterrupted. It feels a little like an endless sleepover, and when he’s with Chanyeol, Baekhyun always feels more childish than he is.

He hardly notices Chanyeol grab a blanket in his arms and get up from his bed. The younger walks over to Baekhyun’s mattress, almost tripping on the way over, and tosses the blanket at him. Before he knows it, Chanyeol is in his bed, sliding under Baekhyun’s blanket and covering them both with his own. He shifts his body a few times until he’s comfortable and suddenly his hair is tickling the tip of Baekhyun’s ear.

“Is this okay?” Chanyeol’s voice seems to vibrate the whole bed.

“Yeah.” That seems to be his favorite answer tonight, but Baekhyun doesn’t know what else to say. He knows Chanyeol is a touchy person. Honestly, they all are, all 12 of them. They all hug and pat each other’s shoulders and ruffle each other’s hair. But when he was placed in EXO, Baekhyun never imagined he’d ever share a bed with one of his members, especially not before their debut stage.

Not that he minds it. He and Chanyeol had hit it off right away. They’re practically best friends, even though they haven’t known each other long. And besides, Chanyeol is warm and tall and got into his bed. He invited himself. So it’s not like Baekhyun can say no.

“I always find it easier to fall asleep next to someone. I thought maybe that’d work for you, too.”

Baekhyun feels himself already starting to drift off. The added heat from Chanyeol’s body melts into his own, and the feeling of panic starts to fade. Without thinking, he leans to the left until his head is touching Chanyeol’s. Vaguely, he feels their legs brush. The wave of exhaustion that he had been waiting for for hours finally finds him, and within seconds he’s half asleep.

The still coherent part of him hears Chanyeol sigh and feels him move in closer until they’re shoulder to shoulder. Chanyeol’s voice is unbelievably soft - like a breeze - when he speaks.

“Goodnight, Baek.”

“Night, Yeol.”

(spoiler alert: Baekhyun doesn’t in fact screw up the debut performance and obviously stays in EXO. Chanyeol insists it’s all because of him, and Baekhyun silently agrees, but he isn’t going to let anyone know that) 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chanyeol is cold and needs someone to cuddle with.

2.

There isn’t anything Chanyeol hates more in the world than being sick.

Well, other than cold, rainy days. He doesn’t like how the sky looks sad when it’s grey and how the outside world seems so uninviting and harsh when it’s missing all its colour. The way the rain beats down on those days like it’s forcing sopping wet misery on everyone is enough to make him feel at least a little less excitable than usual.

Not that he doesn’t like the rain. He loves rain. He loves splashing in puddles and using umbrellas because they’re like little portable roofs. He just doesn’t like rain when it’s cold and grey outside. He hates cold, rainy days.

But he thinks he hates being sick more.

Everyone in EXO gets sick from time to time. They use their voices so often, stretch their vocal chords to the limits and use them over and over for hours, so it’s like payback when all of a sudden they wake up and it hurts to swallow. Almost as if their bodies are punishing them for being so persistent and careless. Even though it’s not their faults.

Being an idol comes with both pros and cons, but Chanyeol likes to focus more on the pros than the cons, because there really are more good things than bad in his career.

Luhan gets sick the most often, and no one really knows why. Maybe he just has a fragile immune system. Sehun gets sick the least often because whenever another member is sick, he and Tao both make sure to stay far, far away (yet, somehow, Tao always ends up sick anyways). Usually that would be considered rude, but they’re always the ones who run out late at night to buy medication. They help out in their own ways. Plus, it’s annoyingly hard to stay mad at them, so they get away with acting childish.

As for everyone else, Junmyeon, in his motherly fashion, makes them all help out when someone is sick. They take turns bringing water and taking temperatures and fluffing pillows and attempting to make soup. It’s a nice cycle they have, even if it spreads illness much quicker throughout the dorm.

So, basically, it’s an endless cycle.

Jongin is apparently the one assigned to Chanyeol at dinner time. He knocks on the door politely as he always does (unlike Jongdae, who usually just barges in) and waits a couple of seconds before entering. Chanyeol doesn’t miss the way his nose crinkles at the sight of the room. Tissues are scattered on the floor, all supposedly aimed at the garbage can sitting by the opposite wall, and at least 6 glasses of water are lined up on the floor beside the bed (Chanyeol doesn’t really have an explanation for that). A bottle of some type of throat medicine lies next to his pillow and a lukewarm washcloth is hanging over the side of the mattress.

“I have food.” Jongin sets a bowl of something that smells salty down on the bedside table and hands Chanyeol a pair of chopsticks. “Lay hyung made it.”

Chanyeol sits up immediately, ignoring the irritating pounding behind his eyes, and picks up the bowl. Inside is some kind of pale yellow soup filled with noodles and chopped up vegetables. Considering all he’s had to eat since yesterday has been toast and tea, the soup looks heavenly.

Suddenly, he realizes what it is. He wonders how Lay knew how to make it. “Oh! My mom used to make this a lot!”

Jongin nods, still standing next the bed awkwardly. “Mine too. It’s really good for you if you’re sick, so. Feel better.”

Chanyeol blows on the soup to cool it down, noticing Jongin smile out of the corner of his eye. Jongin is definitely one of his favorite fellow EXO members. He’s playful but also mature, outgoing but also quiet. Not to mention he can teach anyone how to dance, even Chanyeol, who is the definition of “long and lanky”.

After a few moments, Jongin crosses his arms. “Do you need anything else? Another blanket, more tea....” He looks around the room again. “Maybe for me to bring the garbage can closer?”

Chanyeol laughs. It sounds kind of hoarse and tired to his own ears, but the boy in front of him doesn’t seem to notice. As he picks up a noodle with his chopsticks, Jongin walks across the room, grabs the garbage can and places it on the floor close to Chanyeol’s feet.

“I’m not picking these tissues up for you, though. Sorry. You’ll have to ask Junmyeon hyung to do that.”

“Even though I’m sick?” Chanyeol gives his best puppy eyes. He’s been told they work very well.

Apparently the second youngest member is immune to them, though, because Jongin doesn’t so much as blink. “Especially because you’re sick.” He pretends to sound annoyed, but a smile escapes him as he walks over to the door. “Enjoy your soup.”

“Thank you!”

The door closes quietly and Chanyeol is once again alone with his four blankets, steaming soup, and irritating sickness.

On a normal day, Chanyeol doesn’t like silence. That’s why he’s known for being loud and excitable; the happy virus, the silence breaker. If it means everyone will feel more comfortable, he’ll do just about anything to keep the atmosphere lively. Some people call it annoying or fake, but he just really can’t stand silence.

The silence of being in his room alone and sick is much worse then anything else, though. It’s not even the relaxing, peaceful silence that he appreciates from time to time. He can’t do anything. If he leaves his room, Sehun and Tao will run away and someone will immediately start fussing over him (he likes attention, but not that much). He can sleep, but he’s been doing a lot of that already. He can clean, but there isn’t really a point. According to the doctor who come to check him out that morning, the virus currently ruining his life could be staying another day or possibly longer. Even if he cleans up, the floor will be covered in tissues again within an hour.

All he can do is lie there.

And eat his soup.

(The soup is great, by the way.)

Unfortunately, there’s only a limited amount of it. Once Chanyeol drinks the last of the broth out of the bowl, he _truly_ has nothing to do. He stares at the bowl for a while, as if he could somehow summon more of Lay’s masterpiece just by wishing for it. When he gets tired of that, he turns on his phone and plays one of his mindless arcade games. After he inevitably gets bored of that, he sees how many balled up tissues he can get into the garbage can by his feet. It’s a much shorter distance than it was earlier, but Chanyeol is anything but a good basketball player, so most of them end up on the floor. And then he gets bored of that, too.

Just as Chanyeol is debating whether he should risk leaving his room (which is stuffy and way too hot), the door opens. He expects Jongin to be back, maybe to refill the bowl of soup, but instead it’s Kyungsoo. His lovely roommate. His lovely, _clean_ , roommate.

Kyungsoo barely even glances at the room before he sighs, heavy and long-suffering. “What the hell, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol decides to put on his innocent face. It’s a little hard to pull off when he can’t breathe through his nose and his cheeks are bright red, but he tries anyways. “What?”

“You know what.” Kyungsoo sighs again and actually takes time to look around the room. “I know you’re sick and everything, but this is ridiculous.”

“The garbage can was on the other side of the room. I don’t have great aim.”

“Clearly.” The other boy walks over to Chanyeol’s bed and points towards the floor. “You have 6 glasses of water here.”

“Oh. I just forgot to ask for someone to take them back, I guess.”

“Is that a used washcloth by your head?”

“....yes.”

“And a half-empty bottle of cough syrup?”

“....yes.”

Kyungsoo looks up towards the ceiling like he’s begging for patience. Being Do Kyungsoo, he probably is. He walks across the room carefully, attempting to avoid stepping on any of the tissues, and immediately crawls into his bed. Chanyeol watches him from under his own covers.

“Just.... clean this up tomorrow. It looks like a mummy exploded in here. Also, you’re sick, not paralyzed. You can stand up and bring all this stuff to the kitchen.” Kyungsoo purses his heart-shaped lips. Through his air of annoyance, he does seem at least slightly concerned, though.

“Okay, Soo. Sorry!”

“Yeah, whatever. It’s fine.” Chanyeol knows that’s Kyungsoo’s way of being sympathetic, so he just smiles.

They spend the next few minutes in silence as Kyungsoo sits in bed reading and Chanyeol sits in bed trying to keep his eyes open. He’s not even that tired, yet for some reason his eyelids feel like they’re being weighed down. But he can’t fall asleep; Junmyeon will be coming in soon to give him medicine. Not that Chanyeol can’t get it himself, but Junmyeon doesn’t seem to trust any of the other members with the medical stuff in the dorm, as if they’re all going to chug flu medicine behind his back. Besides, if it means he won’t have to get up, Chanyeol is all for it. With how groggy he suddenly feels, he’s sure he’d pass out on the spot if he tried to walk all the way to the kitchen.

The door finally opens again. Only, it’s not Junmyeon holding the bottle of pills, it’s Baekhyun. The singer is dressed in baggy pyjamas and his hair glistens, fresh out of the shower. Even though Chanyeol is sure he looks like a corpse (or on his way to being one), Baekhyun smiles at him anyways. The singer hands him the pills and grabs one of the glasses of water from off the floor to place in his other hand.

“Junmyeon hyung is meeting with the manager right now, but he said to take two of these with water.”

Chanyeol does, but it tastes disgusting. He misses the children’s medicine his mom used to give him when he was young, the kind that tasted like bubblegum and artificial cherries. These pills taste like cardboard and plastic.

“He also said that you should go to sleep early, so you can go brush your teeth now. I already did everything I needed to do in the bathroom anyways.” Baekhyun takes the glass from Chanyeol’s hand and lets the younger boy get off the bed and awkwardly shuffle towards the bathroom.

Chanyeol has to hold on to the wall at first because the room is literally _swaying_ around him, and he feels a hand on his shoulder the entire time. He forgot how motherly Baekhyun could be. Probably because he acts like he’s six years old most of the time (don’t they all?).

It’s a longer trip than Chanyeol expected, and by the time he’s done brushing his teeth and washing his face, he’s shivering and wants to sleep for fifty years straight. He coughs and it feels like his lungs are trying to jump out of his body. When he gets back to the room, Baekhyun is in his bed on his phone and Kyungsoo has his eyes closed.

“Can you turn the light off?” Kyungsoo asks quietly, and Chanyeol is closer to the light switch anyways, so of course he isn’t going to say no. Even though it’ll be ten times harder getting back into his bed if the lights are off. He turns the light off and stumbles towards what he thinks is the general direction of his bed.

Then comes a different set of problems.

He’s really cold.

It hits him all of a sudden. Even under four blankets, Chanyeol has to squeeze his fists against his chest and clench his teeth so they don’t chatter. He tries curling into a ball to preserve heat, but it only helps a little. The temperature of the room couldn’t have changed that dramatically between the time he left for the bathroom and the time he came back, so he’s more than a little confused as to why he’s suddenly a living icicle.

He tries to tough it out, for maybe a minute. Honestly, he considers that a pretty long time, seeing as he’s shaking so hard he’s practically vibrating the bed.

“I’m cold.” His words reach nobody. He waits a moment and then repeats himself, too busy trying to warm himself to care if he’s bothering his roommates.

“I’m cold.”

Still nothing.

Chanyeol almost says it again, but then he hears Baekhyun’s voice from across the room. “Do you want another blanket? I can give you one of mine.”

Somehow, Chanyeol doesn’t think another blanket would help him. What he needs is pure heat, or something that radiates it.

“No, but, c-can you sleep with me?”

“What?”

“Can you s-sleep with me? Just for a while? You can go back to your own b-bed after I fall asleep.”

Baekhyun’s blankets rustle like he’s sitting up in bed. Chanyeol can imagine him leaning against the wall, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the dark. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Yeollie. If you have a fever you need something cold, not something warm.”

“Weren’t those pills you just gave me fever reducers? It’ll be fine.” Even the mention of something cold makes Chanyeol shiver harder. The thought of Baekhyun curled up beside him, though....

“I still don’t know, what if your fever gets higher? Or what if I get sick too-“

“Just lay down with him so we can all go to sleep.” Kyungsoo’s sleepy voice cuts through the conversation. Chanyeol blinks at the finality in his tone. Kyungsoo is probably the only member in EXO’s maknae line that can tell the others what to do.

A second later, Chanyeol hears Baekhyun‘s blanket being tossed back and the faint sound of socks against the wood floor. The next thing he knows, said boy is awkwardly trying to climb over him.

“Fine, Soo, happy? Now you can get your full 8 hours of beauty sleep.”

Kyungsoo just hums in response. Chanyeol laughs out loud, which makes Baekhyun laugh out loud, which makes Kyungsoo wake up from his half-asleep state. “Go to _sleep_.”

“Anything for you.”

Thankfully Kyungsoo seems not to have heard Baekhyun’s last comment, because he goes silent again. Baekhyun successfully gets into Chanyeol’s bed and lies down, only to sit back up when the two make skin contact.

“I thought you said you were cold!”

“I am.”

“No, you’re hot.”

Before Chanyeol can agree because _yes, thank you, he is hot,_ the boy in bed beside him pulls the blankets down to his hips, leaving them both uncovered from the waist up. Chanyeol wraps his arms around himself. Baekhyun notices. “Sorry, but it’s really hot under here. It’ll probably be good for you, too.”

Even though he’s still much colder than he should be, there’s an undeniable feeling of relief to not be stuck beneath the covers. As for the temperature problem, Baekhyun has it under control.

Chanyeol feels his friend’s arms struggle to wrap around his torso. At first it’s uncomfortable because there’s an arm literally sandwiched between him and the mattress, but if Baekhyun doesn’t mind, neither does he.

“Aw, my poor Chanyeollie is sick. It’s probably from all the late night takeout we’ve been eating lately.”

Chanyeol laughs. “Can takeout chicken give you a cold?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” He feels Baekhyun shrug. His forehead knocks into Chanyeol’s back.

Warmth begins to flood Chanyeol as it’s transferred to him through Baekhyun’s pale, skinny limbs. It feels a million times better than an extra blanket would.

“Thanks.” He whispers now, as Kyungsoo has started snoring lightly.

“You’re welcome.” Baekhyun says just as softly from behind him. Chanyeol can feel warm breath against his back when he talks.

“Sorry in advance if I get you sick. You can always leave after I go to sleep.”

_But please don’t_.

“Well, I’m already here, so I might as well stay.” Chanyeol can tell that there’s a smile on Baekhyun’s face, even if he can’t see it. There’s a smile on his own, too, and he knows the boy cuddling him can sense it. They’re pretty good at reading each other like that. “But if I get sick, you have to take care of me, too.”

“I always do!”

“Uh-huh.”

Chanyeol’s head is still pounding like a drum, and his throat is sore and his lips are chapped and his body feels like it weighs a thousand pounds, but at least he isn’t cold anymore. He can tell Baekhyun is starting to nod off behind him, because his breathing slows and his arms relax against Chanyeol’s waist. It’s the most comfortable Chanyeol has been in days.

He shivers one last time and then finally lets the warmth radiating off of Baekhyun engulf him completely. He falls asleep to the feeling of his best friend’s arms around him, and thinks that maybe this is the type of medicine he’s needed all along.

(Turns out that Chanyeol actually hates being sick just a little less than he hates cold, rainy days.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update! Don’t worry, though I already have chapter 3 almost completely written, so the next update should come faster. 
> 
> Again, thanks to pentagone1010 for reading this chapter beforehand (and probably every chapter in the future).
> 
> By the way, the soup I was talking about is “kongnamulguk”. It’s a common meal to eat in Korea if you’re sick. That’s why a Chanyeol was wondering how Lay knew how to make it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chanyeol likes to fall asleep on the couch, and sometimes he needs someone to take him back to bed.

3.

It’s a known fact in the EXO dorm that sometimes Chanyeol ends up on the couch in the middle of the night. No one knows how or why, but it’s not uncommon to see him asleep in the living room even though he had definitely gone to bed in his own room just a few hours earlier. Yixing thinks Chanyeol must sleepwalk without realizing. Kyungsoo always says that Chanyeol goes into the kitchen for late night snacks and gets too tired to walk back to his room. Sehun likes to believe that he does it on purpose, so one of the others will be forced to carry him back to bed.

Whatever the reason for Chanyeol’s sleeping situation, it’s a fairly large couch, and they always keep a spare blanket draped over the top, so it’s not an issue. Usually the members just walk past the rapper if they see him lying there, leaving him to his dreams and semi-comfortable sleeping positions.

Occasionally, though, like after a long, tiring day of practice or the night before an important event, they’ll have no choice but to move him. He’s 6 feet tall, and as nice as the couch is, sleeping on it can’t be all that comfortable for someone his height. More often that not it’s Junmyeon who will take Chanyeol back to his room. As leader and also one of the oldest members, he makes it his job to take care of the younger ones as often as possible. Even when said younger members are 4 inches taller with the balance of a baby deer even while awake.

Junmyeon deserves more credit than he gets.

The only other person who willingly carries Chanyeol from the couch back to his bed is Kris - likely because he’s the only member taller than the boy. It’s become a common thing, so the rest of EXO rarely bother to help Chanyeol to bed, knowing that one of the two so-called “parents” of EXO will take care of him.

Besides, he’s _6 feet tall_ and could probably sleep through a _nuclear war._ They’d rather let the two leaders deal with that.

So when Baekhyun notices Chanyeol splayed out on the couch at 2 in the morning after a long, exhausting dance practice, he doesn’t do anything at first. He‘s on his way back to his room after walking through almost complete darkness to get a drink from the kitchen, trying to be as quiet as possible so he won’t wake anyone. The curtains are all closed so no moonlight can get in, but there’s a dim lamp on in the manager’s room that succeeds at somewhat illuminating the dorm. Everything is made up of mostly vague shapes and shadows.

Frozen in his spot, Baekhyun hovers over the couch with a glass of water in his hand and stares at the sleeping boy, slightly confused. He’s 99% sure Chanyeol had fallen asleep in his own bed, in the room they both share with Kyungsoo, as soon as they’d all gotten back to the dorm.

No, he’s 100% that’s what had happened. He clearly remembered the deep conversation about bubble tissue he’d had with the rapper before falling asleep.

He can only really make out the dark outline of Chanyeol’s body, but it’s easy to tell that he’s in a deep sleep. His best friend’s chest rises and falls slowly. He actually almost looks comfortable, even with his left arm and leg dangling off the side of the couch.

Baekhyun considers covering him with a blanket and just leaving him there, but they have a pretty busy day tomorrow and he doesn’t want Chanyeol to wake up with a sore neck. So he does what he always does; awkwardly stumbles down the hall and knocks on Junmyeon’s door.

No one answers. Likely everyone in the dorm is asleep by now, but out of all of them, Junmyeon is the lightest sleeper. Baekhyun knocks a few more times, ready to leave for his room if no one opens the door. Chanyeol can survive the night on the couch. He’s the one who fell asleep there in the first place.

Just as he’s about to leave, someone opens the door. Baekhyun finds himself standing face to face with Sehun, who looks dead on his feet and extremely annoyed from being woken up.

“What?”

A surge of amusement — that he’d probably be better off without right now — bubbles through Baekhyun’s veins. He can’t help it. “Is that any way to talk-“

“What do you want.” All traces of patience are suddenly gone from Sehun’s voice. Shadows dance across his face, highlighting all the sharp lines and angles. He stares a hole through Baekhyun, and even Baekhyun isn’t stupid enough to make the youngest angry when he’s tired. He takes a cautious step back, just in case he already has.

“Chanyeol’s asleep on the couch.”

Sehun peeks his head out into the hall to glance towards the living room. “Okay. And..?”

“And I need Junmyeon hyung to carry him back to his room.”

“Why?”

“So he doesn’t wake up with a sore neck.”

Sehun lets out a sigh. “It’s almost 2:30 in the morning, hyung. I’m sure he’ll be fine if he has a couple of kinks in his neck tomorrow-“

“Can you just check to see if Junmyeon hyung is really asleep?” It _is_ a kind of ridiculous request when Baekhyun thinks about it, but it feels wrong to leave Chanyeol on the couch all night by himself. He would go and wake up Kris instead, but he sleeps in the same room as Luhan and Luhan has been overworking himself a lot lately. If he woke up by mistake, Baekhyun would feel bad for the rest of his life, probably.

For a long few moments, Sehun doesn’t move. His expression is barely visible, mostly blending into the darkness around them, but he seems to be contemplating his entire life right then and there. Eventually, though, he rubs his eyes childishly and steps back into the darkness of his room. Baekhyun stands by the doorway, waiting. The glass in his hand seems to get heavier every second.

A half a minute later, Sehun reappears at the door with his phone in his hand. “He’s asleep.”

“Can you wake him up?”

“Are you serious?” Sehun furrows his eyebrows, which makes him look confused and annoyed — and pretty cute — all at once. “I’m not waking him up just to carry Chanyeol to bed.”

“That’s Chanyeol hyung to you.” Baekhyun says and he doesn’t even regret it, because he’s annoyed at Sehun right now, for some reason. “Can you at least help me carry him to his room?”

The maknae stares at him blankly, almost as if to say you must be kidding. But Baekhyun’s not kidding. There’s no way he can carry an unconscious Chanyeol to his room and put him to bed by himself. Sehun, however, is nearly the same height as Chanyeol. That’s some undeniable logic right there.

“Okay,” Sehun’s eyelids are twitching, desperate to close. “if you’re so worried about Chanyeol hyung being sore tomorrow, just take him to bed yourself. You sleep in the same room, anyways.”

“He’s too tall! He’ll probably end up falling on me and flattening me to death.”

“Well then, just leave him be. He’ll be fine. Can I _please_ go back to sleep now?”

Baekhyun huffs, which Sehun apparently takes as a yes. Before he knows it, the door is closed in his face, leaving him in the dark with a glass in his hand and a tall rapper on the couch.

After a good 5 minutes of debating, Baekhyun decides to help Chanyeol to bed. He isn’t that tired — which is why he had woken up at 2:30 in the morning in the first place — and the walk to his, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol’s room takes less than a minute. He leaves the glass of water on the counter for him to retrieve later and makes his way over to the couch.

Chanyeol hasn’t moved at all in the past 20 minutes, although his mouth is slightly open now. The lighting is too dim to tell if he’s drooling or not, but Baekhyun prays with everything he has that he isn’t.

He walks over the the side of the couch and leans down until he’s staring straight at Chanyeol’s face. Baekhyun feels kind of bad that he’s about to wake him up, because he looks so relaxed. Before he can change his mind, he starts tapping Chanyeol’s shoulder. “Wake up.”

Obviously that doesn’t work. He tries again, louder. “Hey, Yeollie. Wake up.”

That time he gets a soft sigh and a hand batting weakly at his chest. Baekhyun grabs Chanyeol’s wrist and shakes his arm back and forth.

“Hmm.”

“Chanyeol, you awake?”

Silence. Baekhyun rolls his eyes and hits his friend’s shoulder more forcefully than before. “Chanyeol. Come on, wake up.”

“..huh?” As soon as he starts to stir, Baekhyun lets go of his wrist and leans back a little. Sleepy dark brown eyes open to stare into his own. They blink slowly as Chanyeol tries to pull himself from the tight grasps of sleep.

“Hey, Yeollie. You fell asleep on the couch. Wouldn’t you rather sleep in your own bed?” Baekhyun cringes at the tone of his own voice. He sounds like his mother.

The boy on the couch lifts his head, still a bit disoriented. “....I’m on the couch.” He says after a second, like he’s just realizing that. Maybe he does sleepwalk, after all.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun replies, still speaking as if Chanyeol is a little kid. “Want to go back to our room?”

Chanyeol considers it for a moment. His eyes roam around the room until they focus back on Baekhyun. Okay.”

Now comes the hard part. Chanyeol manages to sit up by himself and place his feet on the floor. Without saying anything, he tries to to stand up and balance on his feet, but less than half a second later he suddenly grabs Baekhyun’s shoulder to steady himself. He laughs happily, seemingly amused by his own sleepiness. Baekhyun, on the other hand, almost slips under the weight of Chanyeol leaning on him.

“Okay, you have to at least _try_ to walk by yourself.”

“Oops. Sorry.”

By the time they make it into the hallway, Chanyeol is at least holding his own weight. He walks with his arm wrapped around Baekhyun like a toddler, eyes sliding shut every few seconds before shooting open again. Baekhyun keeps his face expressionless even though there’s a fire ignited in his chest. Who knew Chanyeol was so cute when he was half asleep?

He feels something knock into his skull. The impact is light but surprising enough that he almost yelps. When he tries moving his head to glance at Chanyeol, he finds that the boy has leaned over and is now resting his head on Baekhyun’s, and Baekhyun makes the second observation of the night.

Chanyeol is _clingy_ when he’s tired.

When they reach the door to their room, Baekhyun shrugs Chanyeol off of him - instantly feeling bad - and enters the room as quietly as he can. “Stay here.” He whispers to Chanyeol, and he hopes that the rapper is awake enough to understand.

Dim light floods the room as soon as Baekhyun locates his bedside lamp and turns it on. Kyungsoo remains a motionless heap of blankets on his bed, which is good. Already preoccupied with a drowsy Chanyeol, having Kyungsoo wake up is the last thing Baekhyun needs. Opening the door wide, he grabs Chanyeol’s hand and pulls him in, but not before the latter bumps into the doorway and lets out a sharp “ah!”.

Baekhyun flinches. Luckily Kyungsoo stays asleep and the short walk to the bed after that goes smoothly, without any more loud noises or stumbles along the way.

Both boys collapse onto the bed, Chanyeol on his back and Baekhyun face first. His arm hurts from dragging the former around the dorm, and the exhaustion he hadn’t been feeling earlier, he feels now. He burrows his nose deeper into the thick blanket he fell on, and recognizes the smell. Laundry and shampoo.

 _His_ shampoo?

Baekhyun groans and nudges the sleepy rapper beside him. “Yeol. We’re on my bed.”

“Mm.”

Come on, don’t you want your own bed?”

“Mm.”

“Ugh.” Reluctantly, Baekhyun lifts his head up off of his blanket and glances at Chanyeol, who has almost completely fallen back asleep, snoring and all. He grabs Chanyeol’s feet, which are still touching the floor, and shoves them up onto the mattress. It’s a struggle at first to try to yank the blanket out from underneath him, but eventually, in a sudden feat of strength, Baekhyun is able to cover Chanyeol with the blanket.

He himself lies down under the blanket on the opposite side of the bed as Chanyeol. Being careful not to kick the boy in the face, he squirms and shifts until he’s in a comfortable spot and closes his eyes.

Dragging Chanyeol to bed seems to be have been more tiring than Baekhyun thought it would be, because his limbs suddenly feel heavy and even though he knows he left his drink in the kitchen, he can’t bring himself to get up and grab it. He can’t bring himself to care, either.

Over the years, he’s gotten used to sleeping beside the other members. It’s not an uncommon thing, in the EXO dorms. Even after all this time, even though they’re all grown men, it’s still kind of like a sleepover when they fall asleep in the same bed together. Maybe at debut it would’ve been strange to think about sleeping next to Chanyeol, but now Baekhyun feels peaceful in the rapper’s presence.

“Hey, Yeol?”

“....Mm?”

“Why were you sleeping on the couch?”

Chanyeol is quiet for a few beats. Finally, he answers, but Baekhyun has to listen very carefully because the words are slurred and mumbled in the boy’s sleepy state.

“I went to get a.... drink.”

Baekhyun’s mouth twitches and he breathes out a laugh. _Of course he did_. That would be just like Chanyeol to wake up in the middle of the night to get some water, and then be too tired to even walk back to his room. The singer makes a mental note to tell Yixing, Kyungsoo and Sehun in the morning that unfortunately, all of their theories were wrong. Using his foot to tap Chanyeol’s shoulder as thanks, he shuts his eyes again for the last time.

He falls asleep quickly, and wakes up with Chanyeol’s knee digging into his stomach and his own leg wrapped around Chanyeol’s torso.

(It’s not uncommon for Chanyeol to fall asleep on the coach, but after Baekhyun’s first long and tiring adventure to take him back to bed, it’s also not uncommon to find the two asleep together in the same bed.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally done! Hopefully the next chapters will be up soon. In the meantime I hope you’re all liking this fic!
> 
> I read somewhere that Chanyeol would sometimes wake up on the coach not knowing how he got there. Idk if that’s true or not, but even if it’s not it sounds like the CUTEST THING EVER so I included it anyways. 
> 
> Also, I’m not sure if it’s showing up for you guys but right now the notes from my first chapter are showing up at the bottom of the other chapters so if you’re reading the notes and you’re confused, that’s why.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading ❤️


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chanyeol loves traveling and also teasing Baekhyun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short disclaimer: I upload all my chapters from my phone, not the computer, and when I tried to upload this one there was a problem with adding italics and stuff like that, so if there are some part of this chapter that seem out of place and weirdly worded, it’s probably because I could only publish it in normal text. thanks!

4.

 

The chairs at the airport are not at all comfortable; lumpy in some places and rough in others and flat where there should be cushioning, and no amount of shifting positions makes it any better.

 

Although that might just be because Chanyeol has Jongdae sitting on him.

 

It’s early, maybe 5 in the morning, and they’re flying out to Los Angeles for their first time. Although the sun hasn’t even risen yet, there’s something lively about the atmosphere and Chanyeol feels wide awake (with help from the coffee he drank on the way here). I mean, come on, they’re traveling to Los Angeles. How could you not be excited?

 

His band mates aren’t.

 

Or, at least, not yet.

 

“Stop moving your leg.” Jongdae whines, voice high pitched in Chanyeol’s ear. He doesn’t stop shaking his leg but he tones it down a little so he’s lightly bobbing it up and down instead of vigorously shaking it like he had been doing before. Jongdae opens his mouth to say something before probably deciding that that’s the most he’ll be able to calm Chanyeol down until they get onto the plane, at least, and he purses his lips.

 

Chanyeol glances around the airport. It’s pretty busy even though it’s not only early in the morning, but also the middle of the week. Lots of fellow travellers are seated in the waiting room around them, though there’s a clear, unspoken distance between everyone else and the EXO members. And, of course, there are the fans, taking pictures from afar. Even at a ridiculous time like this on a Tuesday, there are still fans that showed up and they stand in the distance, watched closely by the staff and airport security, waving their phones and signs and whatever else they have on them.

 

Chanyeol grins happily and waves back, causing a chain reaction of screams and chatter amongst them. He feels a hand swat at his shoulder.

 

“Don’t get them excited, Yeol.” Junmyeon yawns halfway through his sentence. His left hand is gripping a thermos full of coffee. He looks tired. The coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.

 

“But they just look so excited- aren’t you excited, hyung?”

 

Junmyeon takes another sip of his coffee and gives Chanyeol a smile that’s somewhere in the grey area between genuine and forced. “Yeah, of course. It’s just early.”

 

They wait another half hour or so until their flight is finally called. The members slowly gather their stuff while the staff do their best to grab everyone and push them along so they’ll make the flight in time. Chanyeol drags his suitcase behind him and walks animatedly towards the gate, pausing every once in a while to make sure that Sehun, who’s shuffling beside him, doesn’t fall asleep standing up.

 

Luckily, they make it to the gate without losing anyone.

 

The line is pretty long, but the manager insists they stand up so they don’t lose their spots. Chanyeol leans back on the rope keeping them in line and feels a head drop into his shoulder.

 

“Hmmpf.”

 

Chanyeol’s eyes shine with amusement. “What?”

 

“Hmmmmpfff.”

 

“Baek, I can’t understand you.”

 

“Hmmmmmmpfffff.”

 

Chanyeol shrugs Baekhyun off of his shoulder playfully. The boy glances at him with an annoyed expression, but he looks too sleepy for there to be any malice in it. He manages to keep his body upright somehow and leans against the rope apposite Chanyeol. “I’m tired.”

 

“No, really?”

 

Baekhyun shoots another glare his way. “Yes, really. It’s 5 in the morning.”

 

“We’ve gotten less sleep for less important things before.” Chanyeol observes, but his voice seems to fade before it can reach Baekhyun’s ears, because the singer doesn’t even acknowledge him. Or maybe he’s just purposely ignoring him. Either way, Baekhyun doesn’t reply, but starts whining again a moment later.

 

“It’s too earlyyyyy for this.”

 

This time, Chanyeol stays quiet and just watches Baekhyun stand in place, the singer’s eyes a dark, dreaming colour as he stares down at the floor. He tugs at his mask a little and adjusts his bag on his shoulder, looking effortlessly handsome even while half-asleep. Chanyeol notices lots of things about his members. He finds it fun to observe others (he likes to think that’s why he was born with such big eyes) and he has a mental note of all of their strengths and weaknesses and unique little quirks. And, while they’re all very attractive, he’s noticed (it’s hard not to notice) that Baekhyun especially just happens to be able to look like a model no matter the situation. He just seems to blend in perfectly with any background, yet at the same time manages to stand out and make everything else around him look bland.

 

Chanyeol focuses his gaze on Baekhyun’s eyes, which are still trying to fight sleep, and before he knows it, they’re past the gate and boarding the plane.

 

He rushes towards a window seat as soon as he can and throws his phone on it to save the spot. Even as he places his bag in the overhead compartment, he uses his body (one of many advantages of being the tallest) to shield the row of seats so no one can sneak past him. He hasn’t been on a plane in forever, and hasn’t had the chance to sit by a plane window in even longer. Just as Jongin passes by, he plants himself in the seat and blinks angelically.

 

Jongin just stares at him and then sits down in the row of seats in front of him, beside Kyungsoo. Yixing comes next, and stalks towards Chanyeol with his eyes almost completely closed. He sets his backpack down on Chanyeol’s lap.

 

“Um.”

 

The Chinese boy opens his eyes. “What?”

 

“Sorry, I’m kind of already sitting here.”

 

“Oh. Oops.”

 

By the time the plane starts down the runway, Chanyeol has Yixing and Minseok next to him, both of them limp in their seats, asleep. The lighting is dark and everyone seems to be asleep or doing work, and Chanyeol doesn’t want to do either. He watches out of the window as the plane ascends into the clouds, and somewhere between gazing outside and listening to Shinee through his earbuds, he falls asleep, too.

 

Turbulence wakes him. His head snaps up from where he was leaning it against the side of plane, and he nearly slams into Yixing. According to his phone, it’s now 10:47, and the first thing he notices is how bright it is. It had been almost pitch black when they took off, but now it’s sunny and much more lively. Wisps of clouds float beneath the plane. Junmyeon is awake in the next row over, watching a movie, and Sehun and Jongdae are on their phones beside him. Chanyeol can’t see what Kyungsoo or Jongin are up to, but from the crisp, papery noises he keeps hearing, they’re probably reading, and Baekhyun is quietly humming to himself in the seat closest to the aisle. Looking down his row, Chanyeol sees Minseok wearing headphones and tapping his foot to a song, and Yixing watching a video on his phone with chinese subtitles.

 

Chanyeol feels anticipation spark in his gut, fuelling a flame that spreads to every inch of his body, and he can’t control the goofy grin on his face. Being excited by himself was boring, but now everyone else is awake and eager and oh my god yes we’re going to America.

 

Just because he can, and because he wants to savour this trip as much as possible, Chanyeol doesn’t sit still for the next 3 hours. He buys a bag of nuts (which taste pretty gross but it’s for the experience) and a package of cookies that he shares with Yixing (who takes most of it, but that’s okay). He bothers Kyungsoo by kicking the back of his seat (who, thankfully, is a pretty good sport about it) and walks to the bathroom five times in one hour (he only actually uses it twice).

 

It’s overall a pretty productive plane ride.

 

Chanyeol pulls his earbuds out as Yixing taps him on the shoulder. The clock on his computer reads 1:52 now, just after lunch. They’ll be landing fairly soon, too, in just a few more hours. He must space out for a second to process that information because Yixing taps him again to get his attention.

 

“Are you okay with switching places with Jongdae?”

 

Chanyeol blinks. Then he notices Jongdae standing in the aisle, holding a notebook. He has one nearly identical to it; it’s what they use when studying other languages.

 

Ohhhhhhh.

 

Yixing, Jongdae and Minseok are the only EXO-M members now (Chanyeol tries not to dwell on that too much) so although everyone takes their studies seriously, Jongdae and Minseok seem to try especially hard. Without thought, Chanyeol stands up, grabs his backpack and computer and slides past Yixing and Minseok.

 

“Yeah, sure.” He drops his stuff beside Sehun, who barely looks up from his phone, and eventually stretches out in his new seat. “Guess we’re sitting beside eachother now.”

 

Sehun gives him a side-smile and soon they’re laughing, talking, showing each other videos and pictures and Chanyeol’s lost track of the time again.

 

When 2:46 rolls around, Chanyeol gets kicked out of his seat once again. As he’s leaning over Sehun’s shoulder, watching a drama with him, Jongin taps on his shoulder. “Can you switch seats with me?”

 

As he straightens his back, Chanyeol stretches his arms across the seats, hitting Sehun in the process. That’s when he notices that Junmyeon is no longer sitting beside him. His sweater is stuffed cozily in the crease separating his seat and Chanyeol’s.

 

“O-kay..?”

 

Jongin seems to understand Chanyeol’s implied question. “Junmyeon hyung was asked to talk to the staff about something. So were Minseok hyung and Kyungsoo hyung. They’ll be back soon, though. I would ask Junmyeon hyung to change seats with me but he looks like he really settled in here....”

 

Chanyeol nods in understanding. Junmyeon has all of his stuff laid out; his carry-on bag tucked under the seat, his closed laptop hidden under a few books on the supplied tray, a pair of headphones hanging off of the armrest, and a movie already set up on the screen in the back of the seat ahead of him. He’s practically moved in.

 

“Oh. Okay.” Standing up, Chanyeol gets ready to step over Sehun to leave his spot. Then he realizes that he doesn’t know why. “Why do you need to switch spots with me, again?”

 

A shy smile creeps into Jongin’s face as he points, without looking. “He keeps falling asleep on me and it’s annoying. Plus, I’ve been in the same spot this whole plane ride and my legs are stiff.”

 

Chanyeol glances over to where Jongin is pointing and sees Baekhyun asleep. Mostly asleep, anyways. His head bobs like he’s trying to stay awake but is barely managing. Sitting in a now-empty row with a hoodie covering his head and a mask covering his face, Chanyeol almost wouldn’t recognize his band member. It’s endearing, in a way (even though he looks kind of homeless, but then again also like a model, because Baekhyun always looks like a model, as was already mentioned).

 

“Yeah, I’ll switch spots with you.” Before he can really register what he’s saying, Chanyeol volunteers to move. He slides past Sehun (déjà vu?) and drops his belongings on his new seat, beside Baekhyun. Said boy doesn’t even twitch the whole time.

 

Chanyeol puts his earbuds in and hovers his finger over the “play” button on his phone, hesitating. He doesn’t feel like listening to music, or sleeping, or watching a movie, or relaxing in general. They’ll be landing very soon and he wants something to do.

 

An idea comes to mind, eventually, and he tries his hardest to ignore it (no really, he does) but his boredom gets the best of him and he reaches over and pokes Baekhyun’s face.

 

He feels like a little kid messing with his friends at a sleepover, and he laughs as he pokes Baekhyun’s cheek over and over again, freezing when the sleeping boy shifts in his sleep. He can feel Junmyeon’s disapproving looks from a whole aisle away but it’s okay as long as Baekhyun stays asleep, right?

 

So, of course, he wakes up.

 

Baekhyun groans and sinks into his seat, pale fingers reaching out to pull his hoodie further over his head. That should be Chanyeol’s cue to back off. And normally, he would.

 

But didn’t Baekhyun already sleep for, like, 12 hours or something?

 

He pokes his best friend again and this time Baekhyun catches his wrist pretty firmly, considering he’s barely awake. “Stop. Let me sleeeeeep.”

 

“You already slept for hours.”

 

“Now I’m going to sleep for a few more hours.” Baekhyun peeks open his eye and loosens his grip on Chanyeol’s arm, but instead of letting it drop he brings it closer to his chest. Something that feels like a blush (but definitely isn’t) fans out onto Chanyeol’s cheeks. “Just sleep beside me.”

 

A couple of seconds later, Baekhyun speaks again, realizing what he just said. “Sorry. That sounded kind of suggestive. I just meant you should fall sleep with me instead of waiting for me to wake up.”

 

“Oh, yeah, I knew that.”

 

Chanyeol sort of knew that.

 

The next time he blinks, Baekhyun’s eyes have slid shut again, and there’s only a couple of hours left until they land in Los Angelos anyways, so Chanyeol leans back in his seat and clips his seatbelt on and stares at the floor. He absentmindedly taps his foot against Baekhyun’s shoe. A minute ago he felt excitable and restless, but he suddenly feels a lot calmer. Sunlight streams through the plane window and Chanyeol remembers a news story he once read where a woman nearly got sucked through a plane window and a group of passengers had to pull her back in. He wonders if Baekhyun would be able to save him if the window opened, right now, out of nowhere. Seeing as he’s asleep, he doubts it.

 

He turns on his side and wraps his arms around the armrest between him and Baekhyun, and then clings onto Baekhyun’s sweater, too, just in case.

 

You can never be too careful when it comes to plane windows.

 

Chanyeol doesn’t exactly remember falling asleep, but he does remember the warm sun on his face and the even warmer fabric of Baekhyun’s sweater gathered in his hand.

 

(The plane lands almost three hours later, and luckily, the streets of Los Angelos are just as warm as the sun and Baekhyun’s presence together. Also, Chanyeol doesn’t end up being sucked out of the plane window, thanks to the strong fabric of Baekhyun’s soft sweater.)

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Atavsjdjsjd its been forever since I updated this and I’m really sorry!! I had this chapter finished for a pretty long time now but I just forgot to publish it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Sorry again. I’m gonna try my best to upload the next chapter as soon as I can, I promise!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baekhyun just doesn’t want to be alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so something weird is happening with ao3 for me right now? I write all this on an iPhone and every time I try to add italics or bold to the text after I paste it on this website it starts glitching and all that fun stuff. 
> 
> so. 
> 
> sorry if there are some weird parts of this chapter that don’t sound quite right. that’s because it was meant to be italicized. i’m gonna try to fix it asap lol

5.

 

The room is dark when Chanyeol wakes up, and he can’t help but remember the night before his debut, how he woke up just like this, to a restless Baekhyun.

 

Baekhyun is restless again. Only this time, not just because he can’t sleep, but because he doesn’t want to.

 

Chanyeol doesn’t know how he knows this. It’s strange, but he just knows. He wonders what Baekhyun is staying awake for, or why he won’t let himself go to sleep.

 

The pillow cradles Chanyeol’s head and he sinks into it like quick sand and he honestly debates even opening his eyes again. Japan is a nice country with nice stadiums and nice fans and very nice hotels. Although their concert is over, they’re traveling again in the morning, for another show in Japan, and it would be a waste to not sleep through the whole night in a hotel room as comfortable as this, but then again. Baekhyun is clearly still awake, and Chanyeol’s not a terrible enough friend to just let him go sleep-deprived.

 

Sitting up, he reaches his hands out blindly for his phone, which is likely lost somewhere in his ocean of blankets. Eventually his fingers trace the smooth outline of a rectangular object and he pushes a button on the side. His vision is kind of blurry, but it looks like 3:57.

 

He swears, if Baekhyun has been awake all night—

 

As soon as the light from Chanyeol’s phone goes out, it’s replaced by another one. From another phone screen in the bed beside him. Chanyeol holds his breath and watches the light bounce around like it’s in Baekhyun’s hand for one, two, three seconds, then it goes out. And they’re in darkness again.

 

Maybe he’s going to sleep?

 

Chanyeol’s kind of disappointed, to be honest. Not that he’d ever admit that to anyone He and Baekhyun chose to room together when they first checked into the hotel, anticipating a night full of fun and junk food and maybe watching some Japanese dramas. But, for some reason, after they’d set up inside and each taken a shower, Baekhyun had just.... shut down. They’d still had a few brief conversations, so it wasn’t like he was mad and ignoring Chanyeol. He seemed almost sad.

 

Okay, disappointed is the wrong word.

 

(More like worried.)

 

Chanyeol sends his arm flying out towards the bedside table as he stretches, completely forgetting for a second that there’s a) a water bottle there and b) he can’t see anything. Sure enough, he knocks over the bottle and although he can’t hear anything afterwards, he can practically see the contents spilling out onto the clean, expensive carpet. It was probably nearly full, knowing his luck.

 

He sighs and even though he doesn’t want to disturb Baekhyun’s sleep (if he’s even sleeping), he turns on the lamp to assess the damage.

 

Good news: Baekhyun is asleep, or looks like it, at least. Bad news: the entire bottle spilled and now there’s a dark circle of water stained into the floor. Chanyeol can already picture Junmyeon’s face when he comes to check on them in the morning. Maybe he and Baekhyun will just wake up a half hour before everyone else and leave the room before anyone elsecan come in.

 

He drags himself into the bathroom (why are hotel bathrooms always so bright) and emerges with a towel big enough to wrap around three people at once, because you never know how much water really spilled, and also it’s the first towel he set eyes on and he’s currently too lazy to search for a smaller one. Chanyeol folds it at least 6 times and then lays it down in the general area of the spill and stands on it to let it soak.

 

Maybe it isn’t the best way to fix the situation, but it’s good enough.

 

A piece of Baekhyun’s brown hair sticks out from under the thick hotel blanket like a turtle preparing to pop his head out. Chanyeol wonders if he can even breathe, tucked so tightly under the covers like that. Temporarily forgetting the water on the carpet, Chanyeol steps forward towards the bed, ignoring his mind whispering what are you doing leave him alone and he tugs on the blanket a little so Baekhyun’s face is out in the open. At first he squeals internally at how cute his friend looks, in fact awake and staring back at him, all puffy eyes and cheeks, but then he realizes that his eyes are puffy because they’re red and his cheeks look puffy because they’re damp with tears.

 

Uh.

 

That’s definitely not what he’d been expecting.

 

For a couple of agonizing seconds, Chanyeol just stands there with his jaw unhinged and his mind whirling. He’s only a little less than half-asleep and it’s taking a while to get his brain working. When the gears finally start to shift, he clamps his mouth shut, trying to come up with a solution.

 

Ask him what’s wrong? Hug him? Pretend not to notice and go back to sleep? Start crying, too?

 

Those last two suggestions probably aren’t that helpful, Chanyeol realizes. But he can’t just ask him what’s wrong. Baekhyun is very much awake and likely traumatized that he got caught crying at 4AM by his clumsy, invasive roommate. It’s not that Chanyeol — or any other member, for that matter — is uncomfortable with his friend’s tears, but it’s late, they’re in a foreign country, there’s a giant white towel laid out on the floor and he doesn’t trust himself to be able to help Baekhyun without messing it up. Maybe if Baekhyun were homesick or tired, or Chanyeol was even a little more awake than he currently is, then he could help.

 

But he has to try.

 

“Baekhyunnie? Are you.... okay..?”

 

Baekhyun doesn’t say anything, just continues to stare straight ahead as if he’s still in the midst of assessing his situation. Like he isn’t sure if he’s dreaming or not. Chanyeol stands beside the bed awkwardly, long arms hanging limp at his sides. He wonders vaguely if he’s soaked up all the water yet.

 

He tries again. “Baek? Do you want to talk?“

 

At least this time he gets a response. Unfortunately the response is: “No, everything’s fine.”

 

Even though, clearly, it’s not.

 

Chanyeol bites his cheek. “Are you sure? We have a lot to do tomorrow, so you should probably get to sleep soon, or else you’ll be tired all day. I know when you’re stressed it’s harder for you to sleep.” He adds the last part without really thinking. A part of him is worried that Baekhyun will be embarrassed that he mentioned it, but he doesn’t know why he would, because they’re best friends and they’re alone in a hotel room, not in front of a camera.

 

“I haven’t been awake all night.” The bedside lamp makes Baekhyun’s face look kind of orange.

 

“Oh, good.”

 

There’s silence for a few seconds, which is awkward, to say the least. Neither boy wants to end the conversation, it seems, but neither can think of anything to say.

 

Finally, Baekhyun notices the towel. “What happened?”

 

“Oh. I knocked over a water bottle, so I’m.... cleaning it up.”

 

“With a bath towel? How much did you spill?”

 

Chanyeol likes this conversation topic — he can see the beginnings of a grin on Baekhyun’s face, and he feels a tiny spark of joy that he’s the one that put it there. Baekhyun’s face is much nicer when he’s happy. “The whole bottle. I think it was almost new.”

 

Baekhyun snorts. A barely-laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. It evaporates very quickly, though, and a ringing silence is back. Suddenly feeling slightly anxious, Chanyeol leans down to check if the water has been absorbed yet. He picks the towel up off the carpet and heads back into the bathroom, where he tosses it in the bathtub, making a mental note (that will likely be forgotten) to hang it up in the morning. The floor isn’t quite dry, but hopefully it will be in a few hours. Useless tasks aside, Chanyeol returns to the room to find Baekhyun staring off into space again. His face is indifferent, which is almost worse than sadness.

 

“Seriously, do you want to talk about anything? Did you have a nightmare? Or are you worried about the rest of the tour?” As much as he tries, Chanyeol can’t watch his friend act like this anymore.

 

Baekhyun shakes his head. “No, the tour is fine. It’s really fun, I’m excited for the rest of it.”

 

“Then why are you sad?”

 

At that, the boy in the bed turns his head. “I’m not.”

 

Chanyeol could laugh. “You are. There’s no reason to hide it. Why?”

 

More strained silence as Baekhyun thinks about his next words. Chanyeol scoots further up onto his bed, sitting with his legs crossed like he’s a little kid again, listening to a story at a sleepover.

 

“....I’m just worried about.... us. I guess.”

 

“Us?”

 

“Us. EXO.”

 

“What’s there to be worried about?” And then, without warning, Baekhyun’s eyes turn pink around the edges and they water. It’s so sudden that Chanyeol wonders if he’s seeing clearly. “What’s wrong? What’s stressing you out?”

 

“I don’t know.” Baekhyun says, even though he obviously does know. “After Tao-“

 

Oh. Right. Of course.

 

Tao’s departure, just two months earlier, had been hard for everyone, especially Lay, who had suddenly become the only Chinese member left. When he had come to them announcing that, due to promotions in China, he wouldn’t be participating on the tour with them, a little piece of all of their hearts had broken. Once twelve members, they were now eight. And although it hurt, Chanyeol couldn’t bring himself to get angry at his friends for leaving. He remembered how frustrated Kris had grown, how sick Luhan had been, how tired Tao had become. How lonely Lay had seemed.

 

The ugly truth was that Tao had been overworked, underpaid, overtired and under-appreciated. And he had finally done something about it.

 

“I know.” When Chanyeol glances over at Baekhyun, he can tell that he’s fighting off tears. His first reaction is to panic. Tao leaving had been hard for everyone, but he never knew Baekhyun had been this badly affected—

 

“It’s not just Tao.” Baekhyun whimpers. “Well, it is. But now he’s gone, and Lay isn’t even on tour with us, and sometimes I think about-“ He pauses to take a breath. “I think what if this all ends soon? What if more and more of us start filing lawsuits and leaving, which would make sense, because sometimes the way we’re treated is terrible and even though it’s not as bad as it was, before Kris and Luhan, it’s still so unfair, but I don’t want anyone to leave yet. Not yet. I like this group, I like performing with everyone, I just want us to stick together like we always have and maybe one day we’ll stop feeling so overworked and we’ll become more successful than anyone and Lay will stay with us for sure. I just don’t want anyone else to leave.” His voice cracks on the last sentence, and he’s covering his face with his hands as the tears actually start to fall.

 

Chanyeol has been here before. He knows what it’s like to worry about their success and popularity as a group, and their happiness as individuals. Even though being an idol has always been his dream, he remembers all the times he’s considered quitting altogether. He understands, and the decision to crawl into Baekhyun’s bed and wrap his arms around his friend isn’t a difficult one to make.

 

Baekhyun cries for a couple of minutes and Chanyeol lets him because sometimes it’s just better to let everything out first. The hotel room is dim with just the light from the beside lamp and silent apart from the quiet gasps Baekhyun makes every few seconds. Soon enough they die down and Chanyeol lifts himself up onto his elbow so he can better see Baekhyun’s face.

 

“We’re not going to split up.”

 

“You don’t know that.” Baekhyun replies, with the most miserable look on his face. It kind of makes Chanyeol want to cry.

 

“Okay, I don’t know that for sure, but we’ve been through a lot together. And everyone wants this just as badly as you, Baek.”

 

“Every group splits up someday.”

 

Chanyeol tried not to think about the day when they will split up. The day when the newer, younger, fresher artists will start piling in and they’ll be lost in the list of hundreds of other expired idol groups.

 

Yet there’s a part of Chanyeol that doesn’t really think they’ll ever be forgotten. Hopes, maybe. But also genuinely believes.

 

“Every group splits up someday, but we’ve only just started. We’re successful, Baek. We’re loved. We’re not finished yet.”

 

The boy next to him goes silent, eyes closed. And Chanyeol thinks that even if one day EXO just becomes an old name and their music vanishes off of playlists and radio stations, they will never really be gone themselves. Their legacy is too big, too bright. Their friendships too close.

 

“Don’t worry. We’re not going anywhere.” He settles back down onto the pillow and faces Baekhyun, who still has his eyes closed. Taking note of how close they are, he asks, “Is it okay if I stay here for the rest of the night?”

 

A few seconds later, Baekhyun whispers his reply. “Okay.”

 

Chanyeol forgets about the overturned bottle and the puddle of water and the soaked towel in the bathtub. Those are problems that can be dealt with later. He reaches behind him and awkwardly fumbles with the lamp until he finds the off switch and then the whole room is submerged in a darkness that’s blacker than black.

 

Between the faint sound of the air conditioner and the light breaths that tickle Chanyeol’s cheek, everything is still and feels kind of unreal, the way it always seems to feel in the early, early morning. Baekhyun’s foot accidentally touches Chanyeol’s knee, and they both recoil. The atmosphere is still far too uncomfortable and maybe Chanyeol should just leave it and hope everything will be back to normal by the time they wake up, but. He’s not like that. He can’t go to sleep with how thick the tension in the room is.

 

“Don’t worry. Even if we do break up one day, we’ll still stay friends.” There’s a certain emptiness behind those words by themselves, so Chanyeol adds, “I mean. We’ve all seen each other naked. You can’t not stay friends after that.”

 

A gust of air hits him straight in the face, like a laugh escaping stubborn lips. He wants to hear another laugh, though, before he falls asleep. Call him selfish.

 

“If it makes you feel better,” he looks straight ahead, where he thinks Baekhyun’s face must be, “even when we’re 80 years old, I’ll still be in the group with you.”

 

Shakes of laughter, giggles — manly giggles, of course — come from the space directly in front of him, so close he can almost see Baekhyun’s smile even though it’s impossibly dark. “What would we be called? EXO-CB? Yeolhyun? Baekyeol?”

 

Chanyeol laughs too. “Chanbaek?”

 

“Isn’t that the couple name the fans give us?”

 

“I think so.”

 

“Maybe we’ll be doing the fans a favour then.” This time Chanyeol can actually make out the outlines of his friend’s smile. It’s genuine and tear-free, so he knows his work is done for now.

 

“Maybe.” They lapse into a comfortable silence, this time. A slender leg slings itself over Chanyeol’s own, tying them together like a knot. It’s certainly a weird sleeping position, but it’s cozy and feels natural, so Chanyeol doesn’t mention anything and neither does Baekhyun. It’s not like they’re sleeping together. They’re just — sleeping together.

 

Both space and time are kind of warped after midnight, so neither of them actually know what time it is or how close they are when they fall asleep, but if they end up cuddling in their sleep, foreheads pressed together, they blame it on the fact that it was late and they were tired and a little bit emotional. And that’s that.

 

(Their legs are still tangled when they wake up, Chanyeol’s long ones and Baekhyun’s short ones, and they spend a full 3 minutes trying to separate from the other. Also, the water is never truly cleaned up (“Chanyeol, are you serious? A whole bottle of water?”) but the Japanese housekeeper is sweet and doesn’t question a thing.)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one more chapter left to gooooooo
> 
> I said it wouldn’t take so long for this chapter to come out but I guess that wasn’t true. sorry. writing is so hard wtf
> 
> thanks for reading! (I swear I’ll finish this story before the end of summer! honestly if I don’t I’ll probably never finish it so pray for me)

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what this is because I literally wrote it at midnight but have fun with it! I should have the next chapter up reallyyyyy soon, I hope. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Also thanks to pentagone1010 who offered to read this before I posted it and gave me tips and writing advice. I appreciate it!  
> (more than you know lol)
> 
> By the way, the cheesy title is from the song “Universe” by EXO because it’s all I listened to while writing this. Here’s the song if you want to listen to it as you read:
> 
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=leu-cTvMWTA


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